A lazy Sunday

We went out to walk Boston, dropped by at Neptune's Oysters, which had a variety of oysters and then got some ice cream.
Did you know that the restaurants in the North End are not allowed to serve Coffee or Deserts ? I never knew that special licences were required for coffee.
It is nice walking Boston, we took a nighttime picture of Constitution Marina with Buzz and Marcy's Irwin Ketch in the foreground.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out at that boat. Jeff and Kristi were planning to go out for dinner. So they took their food out, and we had another night of telling sea stories.

And here is the same vantage point at daytime, to have a reference.

We like this environment. It is pretty much like a small village, with it's own residents, right in Downtown Boston. ALmost all boats are covered, mostly with transparant shrinkwrap.

Holidays at Ironsides

We are becoming quite a social crowd at Ironsides.In order to help out Mark on his planning for his upcoming trip to the BVI's we decided to all go to Ironsides, the local hangout, and have a few drinks. Ironsides is a small pub/restaurant walking distance from the marina. It is usually crowded with the growing masses of young urban professionals who work in Boston but live in Charlestown.

Here you see Mark, Buzz and Marcie, Jeff and Cheryl, and me and Daniell quietly sitting at Ironsides.

Winter Blues

We are sitting in Constitution Marina, eagerly awaiting next summer. The snowstorm before Christmas dumped a good amount of snow. What better excuse to get together with everybody around the Marina and have a good social time.

As one can see from the photo, we are comfortably snuggled in. The poor dinghy has withstood more cold, snow ice and freezing than any vessel I know. I am afraid one day she will say enough !
Waterdancer has received her coast guard documentation, and we need to do the renaming ceremony before we sail her out in the spring. We are planning to go over to a dry dock for a few weeks to do the bottom, fix a few little spots on the fairing.

We are already making plans for our trips next year. We are planning to be out much more than we have been last year.

I have to deal with a few electrical gremlins in the depth and wind transducers. I will try to ship them back to Raymarine to haeve them fixed. The ST50 depth unit is hallucinating about the depth readings.

New Years eve is 2 days away, we will walk through Boston, then come back and have a good time with friends at the Marina.

Storm party at Constitution Marina

It was snowing. Really snowing. We were literally stuck at Constitution Marina


There were a few dozen liveaboards at Constitution Marina, just like us, stuck, nowhere to go.

So what do we do ... ? PARTY

The marina has a swimming pool that they heat up and enclose in the wintertime, right next to their lounge/offices. 

We usually go to one of the boats to party. But since there were so many of us, and the appeal of a hot pool was just irresistible, we decided to use the facility. Which meant that Sebastian, the dockmaster, had to be with us too. Well.. he ended up missing the Celtics game. Zack, Jeff and Sheryl's sun, got the ticket and enjoyed the game.

heated enclosed pool that is just absolutely perfect for such a day. 

I wish that we would be there more often. 

We swam, talked about the summer, got drunk and sang. In this video you can see Kristie from S/V "As You Wish" singing, accompanied by Jeff from M/V Carissa. 

Move to Constitution

It is time to do the annual migration from Winthrop to Charlestown. It is usually bittersweet, with the mixed feelings of another summer passed, and a change of environment, and more quieter times.

This is the first time Danielle is riding on Waterdancer. If one looks back to our blogs, there is always some kind of picture of our migration.

This is Waterancer's first year, and we have not really sailed her at all, since we got her so late in the season.

Tapalong our beloved little 13 ft Whaler is coming with us for the trip. Eventually she will be sitting on the dry on her trailer avaiting new exciting trips. It has been a really fun vessel, very dry and is perfect to go around the harbor. We are expecting a lot of fun with her next year.

Well, Waterdancer will be at Constitution until April, at which point we will make the trip back to her mooring/slip in Wintrhop

S/V Waterdancer

Welcome to the S/V Waterdancer blog. She is our new boat, a 1990 Irwin 43 MKIII.
A very roomy, comfortable boat, that can, although not a bluewater sailor, take a good amount of sea, and take us anywhere we care or dare to go.

We have purchased her in October 2008 from Westbrook, Ct. and
did her first trip delivering her from Westbrook to Boston, MA.
Here is a movie of her sailing at 8.4 knots up Massachusetts bay

(Yes we were in a hurry, so we were motorsailing :):) )

The trip took us a total of 2 hours. She performed faster and easier than I would have ever dared to. We ended up 4 hours early at Cape Cod Canal, so we had to stop by at Onset, around 1 am, where we grabbed a mooring and took a nap.

By 12:30 the following day, she was sitting at her slip in Winthrop, MA